Drug over­dose toll passes 2016 record

More peo­ple died from il­licit drug over­doses in Bri­tish Columbia in the first eight months of this year than all of 2016.

The coroner’s ser­vice says the 1,013 peo­ple who died from over­doses from Jan­uary to the end of Au­gust sur­passes a record 982 deaths last year.

The lat­est fig­ures for 2017 show fen­tanyl was de­tected ei­ther alone or with an­other drug in more than 80 per cent of the deaths. In 2012, fen­tanyl was de­tected in just four per cent of over­dose deaths.

Sta­tis­tics show 91 per cent of those who have died this year were aged 19 to 59. Four out of five peo­ple who died were men.